Phillies fall to Mets as offense goes cold

Theo DeRosa

April 3 2018

By Theo DeRosa, Sports Talk Philly staff

Final: Mets 2, Phillies 0

FLUSHING, NEW YORK — In the top of the sixth inning, Rhys Hoskins took a pitch he thought was high and away for strike one, then checked his swing on a called strike two a few inches inside.

Then the Phillies' big slugger did something quite out of character for him. He swung through an A. J. Ramos fastball down the middle and went down on three strikes.

Hoskins' strikeout deflated the Phillies' most promising rally of the night — what started with two men on and nobody out in the inning. Lefty Jerry Blevins entered and extended Odúbel Herrera's 1-for-11 career line against Blevins to 1-for-12, ending the inning and any offense the Phillies could muster.

Starter Ben Lively nearly made it out of the sixth inning, and allowed just two runs, but the offense behind him spun its wheels inning after inning, just like in the sixth.

So with no run support at all on a cold night at Citi Field, the Phillies (1-3) lost, 2-0, to the Mets (3-1).

WP: Matt Harvey (1-0, 0.00 ERA) ❖ LP: Ben Lively (0-1, 3.18 ERA) ❖ S: Jeurys Familia (2)

Hub: Game Summary ❖ Starting Pitchers ❖ At the Plate ❖ Bullpen ❖ What's Next

Game Summary

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
PHI	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0
NYM	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	X	2	7	1

Matt Harvey, once the ace of the Mets' rotation, still showed Tuesday that he could be effective. Perhaps aided by a cold night to knock fly balls down, Harvey skated through five innings.

Ramos entered in the sixth and nearly put the Phillies in the board, but got Aaron Altherr to line out and struck out Hoskins before Blevins ended the inning.

Neither hit that scored a Mets run in the sixth inning was hit all that hard. Todd Frazier took advantage of the Phillies shift that cost them a double play off the bat of Jay Bruce, driving in Yoénis Céspedes with a soft line drive to left. With two outs and two strikes, Travis d'Arnaud blooped a breaking ball into center field to score Frazier. Lively wasn't happy about allowing the extra run, spiking his glove and scowling in the dugout.

For the Mets, Seth Lugo was originally scheduled to start Tuesday before inclement weather caused the cancellation of Monday night's game pushed Harvey back and took Lugo out of the rotation. He pitched a perfect seventh and eighth.

For the Phillies, left-hander Hoby Milner pitched in relief. It was Milner's fourth appearance in four games.

With the early hook of Aaron Nola on Thursday and the tribulations of Nick Pivetta and Velasquez, Kapler's nine-man bullpen is already taxed. Kapler called on five relievers on Saturday. Jake Thompson made his first appearance of the season; Hoby Milner pitched for the third straight day.

Altherr walked and Herrera singled in the ninth as the Phillies attempted a comeback against closer Jeurys Familia, but Scott Kingery popped out and Andrew Knapp grounded out to end the threat and the game.

A phenomenal pitching matchup highlights Wednesday afternoon's series finale. Aaron Nola, who was robbed of a win in his first start, faces Noah Syndergaard, who struck out 10 in his first start of 2018, at 1:10 p.m. The game will be exclusively streamed on Facebook.

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Starting Pitchers